“Shut up, you little bastard!”
Madam Yang hadn’t expected Shuishui to suddenly start screaming. She raised her hand again, about to slap him.
But the slap never landed on Shuishui’s face.
Instead, it struck Madam Xu squarely on the back.
Madam Xu had rushed over just in time to witness Madam Yang attacking the child. Without the slightest hesitation, she threw herself forward and used her own body to shield him.
She feared her mother-in-law deeply, but she also understood her all too well.
Madam Xu knew clearly that Madam Yang intended to hit Shuishui viciously. If that slap landed on his face, even if it didn’t deafen him, it would likely leave his mouth twisted crooked forever.
A child only a few years old could easily be crippled by a blow like that.
“You bitch! Who told you to protect that little bastard?” Madam Yang exploded with rage when she failed to slap Shuishui’s mouth crooked.
And when she realized the person stopping her was Madam Xu—the daughter-in-law who usually let herself be bullied without daring to utter a single complaint—she grabbed a fistful of Madam Xu’s hair and yanked backward violently.
“Ah—!”
Caught completely off guard, Madam Xu cried out miserably as she was dragged backward and thrown to the ground. Tears streamed down her face, yet even in pain so intense it numbed her, she still didn’t dare fight back.
For more than ten years, her daughters Ruyi and Jixiang had constantly suffered beatings and scoldings from Madam Yang.
Madam Xu feared that if she resisted, her daughters’ lives would become even more miserable, and her family’s situation even harder.
“You bitch! Your courage has grown, huh? You dare oppose your own mother-in-law now?”
The commotion finally drew the attention of the nearby women and children from Xiao Family Village, but Madam Yang showed no fear whatsoever. Her hands clutched Madam Xu’s hair tighter and yanked again with savage force, as though she wanted to rip her scalp clean off.
“Stop!”
Xiao Yanzhi roared furiously. Watching Madam Xu dragged around like a rag doll, veins bulged across his handsome face in rage.
This stepmother of his was nothing but a demon.
His own mother’s corpse hadn’t even gone cold before Madam Yang entered the household a mere month after her death.
For over ten years afterward, she had tormented both him and his elder brother, Xiao Dalang.
If he hadn’t picked up the quadruplets at age fifteen—causing Madam Yang to fear extra mouths to feed—he would never have been allowed to split from the household and move out.
If he hadn’t participated in the imperial examinations, earned the title of xiucai scholar, and married Song Jin, Madam Yang would still have treated him like a drifter who would sleep with any woman available. She had even tried stuffing women into his bed, hoping to control and torment him for the rest of his life.
He felt Heaven had treated both him and Xiao Dalang cruelly.
He had once believed that becoming a scholar meant life was finally improving. Everything had seemed under control. He thought that once he became an official and gained enough power, he could save both himself and his elder brother’s family.
Who could have predicted that a devastating earthquake would destroy his legs and lead to Madam Yang bullying her way to his doorstep today?
“Let go of Sister-in-law!”
Watching Madam Xu abused, Xiao Yanzhi wished he could rush over and tear Madam Yang apart with his bare hands.
But he couldn’t.
His legs wouldn’t move.
“Let go of Auntie!”
Hearing Xiao Yanzhi’s roar, Mumu—who had just been slapped flying moments earlier—instantly exploded with fury. Scrambling to his feet, he lowered his head like a charging calf and screamed as he rammed toward Madam Yang.
But before he could reach her, Madam Qian, who had been standing nearby, suddenly struck from the shadows and shoved him straight toward the fire.
Mumu stumbled and pitched headfirst toward the blazing flames.
“No!”
Xiao Yanzhi’s eyes split with terror as he roared in despair, watching helplessly as Mumu fell face-first toward the fire pit.
Just as Xiao Yanzhi sank into utter hopelessness, wishing he could kill Madam Qian with his own hands—and just as Madam Qian sneered, believing Mumu was about to burn alive—a figure suddenly rushed in like lightning.
That figure was like a beam of light illuminating Xiao Yanzhi’s world.
And at the same time, like a fierce slap across Madam Qian’s face.
“Careful!”
Song Jin grabbed the back of Mumu’s collar at lightning speed, then rolled across the ground with him in her arms, successfully pulling him away from the fire and saving him from danger.
Even after rescuing him, Song Jin still wasn’t reassured. She hurriedly got up and turned Mumu over anxiously to check his body.
Finding him completely unharmed aside from the swollen red handprint across half his face, her gaze immediately turned icy.
She stood up and looked directly at Madam Qian.
“Who hit him?”
The reason Song Jin returned in time to save Mumu was thanks to the sisters Ruyi and Jixiang.
After hearing Madam Xu’s instructions, the sisters split up. Jixiang ran to find Xiao Dalang, while Ruyi went to find Song Jin.
Ruyi knew her second aunt had a fierce temper and would never willingly suffer losses. She believed Song Jin could definitely suppress Madam Yang, while her own father was too honest and soft-hearted to be useful.
So she deliberately kept an extra precaution in mind.
And thanks to that thoughtfulness, Mumu avoided being burned and disfigured in a tragedy.
Song Jin had taken out all this food from her space because she didn’t want the crippled man and the four children to starve to death. She was fulfilling a promise—not trying to bring disaster upon them.
When Madam Qian saw Song Jin staring at her darkly, she immediately lost her nerve.
“It… it was Mother who hit him! Wh-what, you dare hit your own mother-in-law or something?”
Because her attempt to harm Mumu had failed, Madam Qian feared Song Jin and Xiao Yanzhi would hold a grudge and settle accounts with her later. So she quickly tried redirecting the trouble toward Madam Yang, hoping Song Jin would fight with her instead.
Looking at this snake-hearted woman, Song Jin suddenly laughed.
“Heh. Who said I have to beat up that old hag Yang? Wouldn’t beating you be even more satisfying?”
During the original owner’s two years married to Xiao Yanzhi, Madam Yang and Madam Qian, this mother-and-daughter-in-law pair, had constantly searched for excuses to accuse her of failing to serve her mother-in-law properly, all in hopes of forcing Xiao Yanzhi to divorce her.
For those two years, the original Song Jin never personally laid hands on Madam Yang. Instead, she relied on her natal family to step in because Madam Yang abused her status as an elder and mother-in-law to oppress others. The original Song Jin feared that if she fought back herself, she would gain the reputation of being an evil daughter-in-law.
At this moment, Madam Qian, Madam Yang, and Xiao Jinlian all believed Song Jin still wouldn’t dare touch them. Without her natal family backing her, they thought she could no longer stir up trouble, which was why the three women acted so fearlessly.
But Madam Qian and Xiao Jinlian seemed to have forgotten one thing.
In terms of seniority, they still had to call Song Jin “Second Sister-in-law.”
If a second sister-in-law beat up her younger relatives, what was there to fear?
And Madam Yang had forgotten something too.
They were refugees now.
Who still had the energy to care about petty disputes between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law?
Out on the refugee road, robbery, murder, even cannibalism born of starvation were no longer shocking things.
A fight between a daughter-in-law and mother-in-law wasn’t even worth gossip anymore. Nobody would spare them a second glance.
If Song Jin didn’t seize this opportunity to properly teach these three women a lesson, they would all continue believing she was a paper tiger—easy to bully and rob.
Madam Yang had still been clutching Madam Xu’s hair, but when she saw Song Jin return looking ready to attack Madam Qian, her slanted eyes narrowed coldly.
She sneered.
“You little bitch, do you still think you’re back in Xiao Family Village? Do you still think your slut of a mother can protect you?”
Madam Yang was extremely dissatisfied with Madam Qian redirecting the trouble toward her, but right now they were family. They had to stand united.
“Fifth girl, Third Daughter-in-law, today we’ll settle all the old and new scores with this little bitch together! Let’s teach her how a proper daughter-in-law should behave!”
Madam Yang released Madam Xu’s hair and shot Madam Qian and Xiao Jinlian a meaningful glance.